Art Building

It says Art now, but this building has a rather gruesome, and frankly scandalous, past. Built in 1905, this Beaux Arts structure, which is a monumental and classical architectural style, was originally the Willamette University College of Medicine. It was designed specifically for the grim realities of medical education. Those large floor to ceiling windows were meant to flood dissection tables with natural light. The walls hid a specialized ventilation system to extract the odors of the anatomy labs, and a central shaft used a pulley system to hoist cadavers from the basement up to the third floor. As we have explored Salem today, we have seen wandering institutions forced to move by devastating fires or logistical nightmares. But this medical school moved because of sheer scandal. In 1910, a landmark study of medical education known as the Flexner Report evaluated programs across North America. It delivered a scathing verdict on Willamette, ranking the medical program as a severely deficient Class C institution because it lacked adequate clinical facilities. Facing intense public pressure, the university trustees essentially threw in the towel. In 1913, they merged the program with a Portland institution, abandoning this cutting edge building just eight years after dedicating it. If you tap the image in your app, you can slide between how this spot looked in 1877 and today, quite a transformation. Following the medical school's humiliating exit, the space became a revolving door for the law school, the science department, and finally the College of Music. Over the decades, the building suffered from severe neglect. By 1970, the upper floors were condemned. The danger became undeniable when a fifty pound window frame ripped out of the wall and plummeted straight down onto a piano. It miraculously missed a student who was practicing there at the time. Following that near disaster, the university launched a massive renovation, stabilizing the floors and moving the art department here in 1976. A later three and a half million dollar remodel added a modern wing and restored those massive windows. The beautiful, luminous quality originally intended to illuminate cadavers now helps students mix oil paints. Unsurprisingly, the building's grisly origins have left a few lingering residents. Students still report hearing the dragging footsteps of a ghostly young girl in the upper halls. Another local legend claims a thief broke in to steal artifacts, only to plunge to his death from the third floor while fleeing police. His restless spirit is now blamed whenever art supplies mysteriously move around the studios.